Chief justice praises women judges

CEBU, Philippines — Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo was all praises to women judges as he addressed them during the 29th Annual Convention-Seminar of the Philippine Women Judges Association (PWJA) and the 2024 Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) held in Cebu City.

Gesmundo said more and more women are taking up active roles in society, even in law schools females outnumber males at a ratio of 3:1. With this trend, the chief justice said it would not be surprising if more women would be appointed as judges.

More than the numbers, Gesmundo said, what really matters is the unique perspective that a woman judge brings into the bench.

“We read the same records and view the same facts, but they always manage to see something other than what I see. And this is not unique to them. This is something shared by all women judges and it is a product of not only your individual upbringing, but a collective of your people’s history, culture, traditions, practices, and evolution. This is the extraordinary power that women judges bring the bench,” the chief justice said.

About 430 trial court judges in the Asia-Pacific join the 3-day event that kicked off yesterday.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Lazaro Javier also noted the rise in the number of women judges in the Asia-Pacific Region. Javier said some of them even occupy the highest echelons of the judicial system.

Javier, who is the president of PWJA, said that there are also powerful females taking the reins in government as ministers or heads of states like in Indonesia, Samoa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.

She noted that in Southeast Asia there has been significant progress towards enhancing women’s representation in parliaments, from 12% in the 2000s to 22% in 2022, closer to the global average of 26%.

In the 2023 Global Gender Gap Index, New Zealand ranked 4th overall towards full gender equality, the highest in the Asia-Pacific Region, with Philippines coming in second for the region at rank 16.

“I firmly believe that through greater cross-border collaborations, we are able to gain insights into the effective practices of each nation and are able to uplift each other towards attaining gender equality. Together, we shall rise for there is nothing stronger than a group of women bonded by the same cause,” she said.

At the start of the 3-day event, a Memorandum of Understanding was entered into between the Supreme Court of the Philippines and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The MOA, Javier said, is aimed at honing the skills of Family Court judges, many of whom are present yesterday, to become better equipped at protecting women, children, and families involved in intricate legal disputes.

“Together, we wield the power to end the culture of injustice and inequality aimed not only at women but at all victims of oppression. We ourselves may have been victims of injustice and inequality but our children and our children’s children don’t have to be,” Javier said.

She added, “daily toils as women may be gruesome and wearying, but if at least for the next few days, we may take comfort in knowing that we are not alone-we stand together. I believe that this is why it is said: never underestimate women; there is a good reason the queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. Let us make our next move, the winning move for all women”. – /FPL (FREEMAN)